bill cosby

While you'd have to be living under a rock to not know the gist of what's happening with Bill Cosby—lots of women have accused him of sexual assault—it has been difficult to keep up with the nitty-gritty of it all. And we don't mean difficult in a "this is too icky to read about" sense (though, there's certainly an element of that). Rather, the sheer fact that dozens (yes, dozens, plural) of women have come forward with public allegations against Cosby in the past nine months has made this ongoing story both complex and confusing, at times. Here's a breakdown of the need-to-know details of the Bill Cosby scandal. The first allegations of abuse date back 10 years ago, to 2005. Andrea Constand, a former employee for the Temple University women's basketball team, files a lawsuit against Cosby, claiming he drugged and molested her at his Pennsylvania home in 2004. The Constand court papers include 13 other women who make similar accusations against the comedian. Cosby denies everything but settles with Constand out of court in late 2006. The sexual abuse allegations against Cosby resurfaced in early 2014. Newsweek runs interviews in February with two of the women from the read more

At a White House press conference this afternoon, President Obama, under pressure from advocacy groups to revoke Bill Cosby's Presidential Medal of Freedom—which was presented to the comedian by former President George W. Bush in 2002—asserted that while there is no precedent for revoking the honor, drugging a person and subsequently having sex with that person is rape. "There's no precedent for revoking a medal," President Obama said. "We don't have that mechanism." However, the President clearly stated: "If you give a woman or a man for that matter without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape. I think this country, any civilized country should have no tolerance for rape." In response to the President, Angela Rose, executive director of PAVE: Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment, released this statement:The Medal of Freedom embodies our nation’s values. Allowing Cosby to maintain this coveted symbol suggests that we as a society support coercive sexual behavior. Revoking the medal will send a powerful message to America's youth about the critical importance of consent, which is a freely given, enthusiastic, verbal and sober "yes," not the absence of a "no."The President said there is read more

As dutiful Amy Schumer fans, we've determined there are specific stages to watching each of her Inside Amy Schumer skits: Stage One: "Oh no, she didn't." Stage Two: "Oh yes, yes she did." Stage Three: "That was brilliant. And hilarious. And perfect." The latest bit to take us through all of the Schumer stages came last night when the comedian took on the Bill Cosby scandal, a moment we've anticipated with great curiosity since Schumer announced her plans to tackle the topic at the Tribeca Film Festival. "I think we probably talked about this scene more than any other scene we've done," she said at the time. Well, all the discussion paid off, since Schumer found a way to make a feminist rape joke (a.k.a. the impossible possible)—again. Watch on: Schumer's sketch perfectly nails the irony of the Cosby scandal: that disconnect between Cosby's lovable on-screen character and the awful crimes he's accused of in real life. "How could the face of such a yummy treat even do anything bad?" Satire in its finest form. What do you think of Schumer's take on the Bill Cosby scandal? read more

In an interview with Linsey Davis of ABC News, Bill Cosby addressed the 30-plus sexual assault allegations against him—sort of. Mostly, the 77-year-old comedian evaded Davis's questions, saying things like, "Reality is, the situation" and "I can't speak." Cosby gave an equally nonsensical answer to Davis' question about how he will respond if any of the students in Alabama, where he is speaking later today, ask him about the accusations. (The fact that Cosby is still getting speaking engagements—much less to talk to an audience of kids—is as puzzling as it is disappointing.) But Davis' questioning, at least in the clip released by ABC, is also nondirect. She asked Cosby: "Are you prepared for the backlash if a young person comes up to you and says, 'my mom says you've done some bad things?' How will you answer them? Did you do it, are you guilty? Are the allegations true?" Watch the full clip below: ABC News Videos | ABC Entertainment News read more

NBC, knowing that journalists are running on fumes these last few weeks with awards show mania, certainly woke everybody up this morning with its comments on the Bill Cosby situation at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. Bob Greenblatt, chairman for NBC Entertainment, said that "it's safe to say" NBC will never work with Bill Cosby again. "When that many people come out and have similar complaints, there was no way we could move forward with [a potential Bill Cosby show, as discussed at last year's TCAs]." Greenblatt went on to add that "the good news is that unlike Netflix, which had a special to run, we were developing a script that we never even got a first draft of, so it wasn't something that was imminent. All I can say is that I'm glad we're out from under that." Greenblatt addressed the controversy head-on, much to the appreciation of the journalists in attendance. He also discussed plenty of other news and shows coming to the peacock network, so let's break it down: *Eva Longoria will star in a new sitcom (currently planned for 13 episodes) called Telenovela, which is a campy, behind-the-scenes look at the making of wildly read more

Hostage situations in Paris: Details of two hostage standoffs are beginning to emerge from Paris this morning—one involving two suspects wanted in the Charlie Hebdo massacre and another at a kosher grocery store near the city's Porte de Vincennes. Last night, the Eiffel Tower went dark on the national day of mourning for victims in the Charlie Hebdo shooting. A photo posted by The New Yorker (@newyorkermag) on Jan 8, 2015 at 3:53pm PST Two promising Ebola vaccines: According to a report this morning, two Ebola vaccines—one made by GlaxoSmithKline and the other by Merck and NewLink—have been approved by the World Health Organization as safe enough to begin trials in West Africa.The next phase of trials will likely take about six months, and manufacturers will ramp up their production at the same time, meaning millions of doses could be available later this year. It's unclear if that will be quick enough to help slow the epidemic, which appears to be on the decline. So far, Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 20,000 people and killed about 8,000, mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Officials estimate the death rate to be about 71 percent. The NYPD crisis: read more

On the heels of last night's report that Phylicia Rashad, who played Clair Huxtable opposite Bill Cosby for 12 years on the long-running family sitcom The Cosby Show, had sweepingly disavowed Cosby's rape accusers, Rashad has issued a clarification of her remarks. "I am a woman. I would never say such a thing. I would never think such a thing," she told ABC News. "My message is, what happens to a nation in which people knowingly and willfully disavow the tenets that describe the nation? This is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of a legacy." Actually, I'm afraid you'll find that when more than 30 women step forward to bravely speak about being drugged and raped when they were very young by a powerful man, it is about the women. It's not about preserving public image at any cost—no matter how great the cultural legacy. And while innocence until proven guilty is an important tenet of the American judicial system, that principle doesn't mean that women should be disenfranchised merely for the sake of their alleged accuser's reputation. It must be obvious by now that, in America, you don't get to read more

Phylicia Rashad doesn't care about the dozens upon dozens of women who've publicly stepped forward to speak about being drugged and raped by Bill Cosby. In fact, the woman who played Clair Huxtable opposite Cosby for more than a decade on The Cosby Show asserts that all these women are part of a conspiracy to bring down an American cultural icon. "Forget these women," Rashad told Showbiz 411's Roger Friedman at a lunch celebrating new release Selma. "What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated. I don't know why or who's doing it, but it's the legacy. And it's a legacy that is so important to the culture." When Friedman asked her about stories about being drugged and raped from celebrities including Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson, Rashad responds, "Oh, please." "Someone is determined to keep Bill Cosby off TV," Rashad claimed. "And it's worked. All his contracts have been canceled." To date, more than 28 accusers have stepped forward to recount horrific stories of being drugged and raped by Bill Cosby. What do you think about Rashad's defense? Sound off in the comments below. read more

It was a tense moment on last night's premiere episode of The Celebrity Apprentice's seventh season when Donald Trump fired Keshia Knight Pulliam—best known for her role as Rudy Huxtable on The Cosby Show. The reason Pulliam was canned? She refused to pick up the phone and call accused serial rapist Bill Cosby to ask him for money. "You have to take responsibility," Trump told her, after eviscerating Pulliam for refusing to pick up the phone and ask Cosby for cash. "I have not talked to Bill Cosby on the phone in I don't know how long," Vulture quotes Pulliam as saying. "So for me to pick up the phone, having not talked to you for five years, except for when we run into each other for a Cosby event—I feel that's not my place to do." On The Celebrity Apprentice, Pulliam was raising money for her charity, Kamp Kizzy, an organization dedicated to empowering young women. Last night's episode of The Celebrity Apprentice was filmed before the height of the recent media attention surrounding the longstanding numerous rape allegations against Cosby. read more

In the ongoing saga wherein 16-plus women have come forward, publicly disclosing they'd been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby, his family and former castmates have remained strangely silent. Until now. NEW: Camille Cosby releases statement defending Bill Cosby; questions news coverage of sexual assault allegations: pic.twitter.com/6C0815uHPV— ABC News (@ABC) December 15, 2014 According to tweets posted to @CBSEveningNews and @ABC, Cosby's wife of 50 years, Camille Cosby, has finally released a statement in her husband's defense—and she compares the allegations being brought against Bill to the Rolling Stone and UVA rape story. Camille Cosby's statement reads:I met my husband Bill Cosby, in 1963, and we were married in 1964. The man I met, and fell in love with, and whom I continue to love, is the man you all knew through his work. He is a kind man, a generous man, a funny man, and a wonderful husband, father and friend. He is the man you thought you knew.A different man has been portrayed in the media over the last two months. It is the portrait of a man I do not know. It is also a portrait painted by individuals and organizations whom many in the media have read more

At latest count, more than 16 women have come forward to publicly disclose their experiences of being drugged and, in most cases, raped by Bill Cosby. The latest story to surface in the media comes from Beverly Johnson, the trailblazing model who was the first African American woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue (in 1974). Speaking to Vanity Fair, Johnson explained that Cosby had invited her to his home and insisted on serving her coffee. As soon as she took a sip of the coffee, she knew something was wrong. "I was a top model during the '70s, a period when drugs flowed at parties and photo shoots like bottled water at a health spa," she told the magazine. "I'd had my fun and experimented with my fair share of mood enhancers. I knew by the second sip of the drink Cosby had given me that I'd been drugged—and drugged good." After immediately recognizing that she'd been chemically impaired, Johnson's survival instinct kicked in and, although she couldn't fight back physically, she fought back as best she could, verbally. "That meant making sure Cosby understood that I knew exactly what was happening at that very moment," she read more

Sometime in the past few weeks, you probably checked your Facebook feed and flinched: Everywhere, people were talking about Bill Cosby and the women accusing him of raping them and/or drugging and sexually assaulting them. Here’s something you may have missed in all the chatter—it’s usually buried in the last few paragraphs of the stories on this topic: NBC is currently working on a new show for Cosby to star in. Yes, the network is still working on it. [UPDATE: NBC has reportedly shut the project down as of Wednesday afternoon, though no official announcement has been made.] (Netflix, meanwhile, has pulled the upcoming special it planned with Cosby.) The NBC show is described as a multigenerational family comedy, with Cosby as the patriarch. His name is supposed to be Jonathan Franklin. He’s supposed to share “years of wisdom” with his daughters. Cue every actress in town putting away their 10-foot poles, because they won’t be using them to touch those daughter roles. NBC has a decision to make—kill the project, or continue working with a celebrity who now has a PR bomb strapped to his chest. Scrapping the show might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s hard for a read more

I think we can all agree that Kevin Hart is having a moment. Well, it's much more than a moment, you see, because while stand-up comedy's golden child Louis CK is getting showered with critical praise and achieving financial success for all his career achievements, Hart has been ever not-so-quietly becoming a force of nature. From starring in 2011's Think Like a Man, which grossed nearly $100 million, to doing sold-out comedy shows around the world, to creating and starring in Real Housewives parody TV show Real Husbands of Hollywood, he is slowly taking over the entertainment biz. So it's only natural that he's releasing his latest concert film on one of the most competitive times in Hollywood: Fourth of July. And judging by his previous stand-up movie, Laugh at My Pain, which became the seventh-highest grossing stand-up film of all time—I think it's safe to say that Let Me Explain is going to be another blockbuster. After watching Explain, you'll probably be hankering for more comedy, so let's take a look at 12 other stand-up specials that I love and recommend you check out this holiday weekend. (WARNING: Some of these clips are NSFW. So please wear headphones if read more

April 3, 1986. Hard to believe, but it was 27 years ago today that The Cosby Show episode "Theo's Holiday" (season 2, episode 21) aired and the show firmly cemented itself as the greatest family comedy of the '80s. In my opinion, it was the best episode in the series run. In the classic ep, Theo Huxtable finds himself taking his parents' money for granted, so they decide to teach him a lesson about the real world—and the writing team of Carsey-Werner-Mandabach could not have illustrated it any more brilliantly. Theo: “When I get in the real world, I'm going to have a lot of money!” Cliff: “I hope you're not waiting for me to die.” Theo spends the night at Cockroach's, and when he arrives home the next morning, nothing is as it seems. There's Vanessa, as Margo Farnsworth, Theo's potential new neighbor—and Cliff as Harley Weewax, Theo's potential new landlord. And then there's me, wanting to know how on earth the writers came up with these names. ...while Phylicia Rashad makes her debut as Millie Farquar, who runs the Chuck Wagon Restaurant. And Theo's face does this: Theo: "Good one, Mom!" Millie: "Whoooo?" Then there's Mrs. Griswald, played read more